fracking

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 16, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• In Wyoming it’s now illegal to collect data about pollution - By Will Potter, Green is the New Red, June 8, 2015
• Protesters Press Secluded G7 Leaders on Harmful Policies, from Crippling Austerity to Dirty Coal - Democracy Now Interview, June 8, 2015

Fracking the EPA:

• Here’s What Most Media Outlets Left Out of Their Reporting on EPA Fracking Study - By Denise Robbins, EcoWatch, June 9, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Stop Seed Laws that Criminalise Farmers & Defend Local Seeds! - La Via Campesina, June 9, 2015
• People's Expo in Milan puts focus on farmers' rights not corporate concerns - By Rosie Scammell, The Guardian, June 8, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Labor Department Audits MSHA - Appalachian Voices, June 15, 2015
• Coalition Briefing Drives Home Need for Chemical Safety Requirements - By Taylor Smith-Hams, Greenpeace Blogs, June 12, 2015
• Was Bush’s EPA More Committed to Chemical Plant Safety than Obama’s? - By Taylor Smith-Hams, Greenpeace Blogs, June 10, 2015
• Niagara County union head claims asbestos exposure - By Philip Gambini, Niagara Gazette, June 8, 2015
• South Africa: Frans Baleni kicked out! A heavy defeat for the COSATU and NUM right wing - By Ben Morken, Marxist.Com, June 8, 2015
• ILWU leaders join protest in Perth against Chevron projects - The ILWU Dispatcher, June 2, 2015
• What did Not Have to Be: The BC Sawmill Tragedies - By Carole Pearson, Our Times, Spring 2015

1267-Watch:

• California Nurses, Teachers Oppose Phillips 66 Oil Train Project - National Nurses United, June 15, 2015
• Educators Take Stand Against Central Coast Oil Train Project; Hazardous Crude Oil Trains Endanger California's Schools, Students - By Claudia Briggs (California Teachers' Association) and Valarie Love (Center for Biolaogical Diversity), Center for Biological Diversity, June 10, 2015
• Feds order trains to have more crew after fatal Amtrak derailment - By Bart Jansen, USA Today, June 9, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Coal miners First Arch, Peabody hit by lawsuits over retirement plans - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, June 15, 2015
• Oil layoffs reach 150,000, recruiting firm says - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, June 12, 2015

Just Transition:

• Our Local Green Future - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, June 10, 2015
• The Real War on Coal: Big Oil vs. King Coal - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, June 10, 2015
• The Transition Will Not Be Smooth Sailing - By Michel Bauwens, Shareable, June 8, 2015
• Will the climate justice movement "Seattle" the Paris talks? - By Brent Patterson, The Council of Canadians, June 7, 2015

Other News:

• Consultation and Accommodation: Turning the Tide on Bomb Trains - By Stephyn Quirke, Earth First! Newswire, June 15, 2015
• USW Urges Senate to Keep Domestic Crude Oil Export Ban In Place - United Steel Workers, June 10, 2015
• Steelworkers, Marathon Petroleum reach tentative deal for Texas City refinery - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, June 8, 2015
• Toledo Refinery Workers OK New Contract with BP-Husky; Vote Ends Labor Dispute, Part of National Strike That Began in February - By Patrick Gallagher, United Steel Workers, June 5, 2015
• Tens of Thousands March Against Global Elites Ahead of G7 - By Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams, June 4, 2015
• Food Is Free gives food for thought on green anarchy - By Andrew Masterson, Brisbane Times, May 24, 2015
• Ever heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain? Federal troops were called against 13,000 miners; Yep - By Brandon Weber, Upworthy, April 29, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism

By Dan Bacher - Censored News, June 6, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Mark Nechodom, the controversial director of the California Department of Conservation, the agency that oversees the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), resigned on Thursday, June 4.

DOGGR is the agency charged with regulating the state's oil and gas industry. Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 appointed Nechodom, who is considered very friendly to the oil industry, to the post in order to expedite permits for oil drilling in Kern County and elsewhere.

The agency has faced increasing scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after permitting oil companies conducting steam injection and fracking operations to drill thousands of oilfield wastewater disposal wells into protected aquifers.

The Committee to Protect Agricultural Water, a citizen organization comprised of Central Valley farmers and "individuals concerned about California's drinking water," filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) complaint in Federal Court on June 3, the day before Nechodom resigned.

The RICO Complaint claims that Governor Jerry Brown's office ordered the DOGGR to approve permits to inject contaminated water in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. 

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 9, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Story:

• Global warming: the ‘slowdown’ that never happened; New scientific analysis shows that the rate of global warming has continued without pause. The ‘hiatus’ simply didn’t happen - Press Release, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, June 4, 2015

Fracking the EPA:

• Don’t Be Fooled by Yesterday’s Headlines, EPA Finds Fracking Contaminates Drinking Water - By Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch, June 5, 2015
• Fracking Does Cause ‘Widespread, Systemic’ Contamination of American’s Drinking Water - By Josh Fox and Lee Ziesche, EcoWatch, June 5, 2015
• EPA Study: Fracking Puts Drinking Water Supplies at Risk of Contamination - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, June 4, 2015
• Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water - By Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch, June 4, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Food sovereignty and agroecology-People’s Expo recipe to mend broken food systems - La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Hands on the Land for Food Sovereignty - By Frederica Toscano and Elisa Caricato, La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Peasants are under the thumb of free market - La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Peasants from around the world: views on Expo 2015 - By Frederica Toscano and Elisa Caricato, La Via Campesina, June 5, 2015
• Africa's farmers fight the corporate takeover of seeds, land and food - By Chris Walker, The Ecologist, June 4, 2015
• Big Ag Claims Cancer-Causing Glyphosate No More Dangerous Than ‘Coffee or Working the Night Shift’ - By Mary Ellen Kustin, Environmental Working Group, EcoWatch, June 4, 2015
• G7, be warned: your 'New Alliance' threatens to destroy small-scale farmers; the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles - By The Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles, The Ecologist, June 4, 2015
• People Should Control the Food System, Not Corporations; Why you should ditch the official EXPO and go to the People's EXPO instead - By Kirtana Chandrasekaran and Stanka Becheva, Common Dreams, June 1, 2015
• Marching on Monsanto and its Government Protectors - By Pete Dolack, CounterPunch, May 29, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Fire at Kentex footware factory kills more than 70 workers - By Jiselle Hanna Sam, rabble.ca, June 8, 2015
• Coal ash spill workers given second chance in court - By Staff, WBIR.COM, June 5, 2015
• Watch: Nancy Hutchison speaks at Justice for Injured Workers rally - By Rebel Sage, rabble.ca, June 4, 2015
• Communities Deserve A Say in Chemical Security - By Taylor Smith-Hams, GreenPeace Blog, June 3, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Norway confirms $900bn sovereign wealth fund's major coal divestment - By Damian Carrington, The Guardian, June 5, 2015
• Oil field services hit hard in jobs report - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, June 5, 2015

Just Transition:

• Jobs, justice, climate: A new climate movement is rising from below - By Naomi Klein, rabble.ca, June 8, 2015
• 1.2 Million US Green Jobs Reported In Q1. Here’s Why That’s A Problem - By Silvio Marcacci, Clean Technica, June 5, 2015
• Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions: Time to Talk About the Next System - By Gus Speth, The Leap, June 5, 2015
• If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!Potential Impacts of Privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority - By Joel Yudken, Economic Policy Institute, June 4, 2015

Other News:

• RMT responds to collapse in East Coast performance - By RMT Press Office, rmt.org, June 4, 2015
• Vast Federal Biological Collections at Risk; U.S. Geological Survey Shirks Responsibility for Managing Troves of Specimens - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, June 4, 2015
• Striking workers occupy Telefónica HQ in Barcelona - By Timothy Ginty, RoarMag, June 2, 2015
• Take over of the National Gallery: privatisation, oil sponsorship and Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ - Press Release, Reclaim the Power, June 1, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Dan Bacher - Daily Kos, May 25, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The same region devastated by the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969 is now the scene of a massive clean up of crude oil by the state and federal governments and volunteers. The international and national media have spread throughout the world the startling images of the oil soaked beaches, birds, fish and ecosystem in a deluge of TV, radio, newspaper and internet reports.

The oil spill resulted from the rupture of an oil pipeline owned by Plains Pipeline, a subsidiary of Plains All-American Pipeline, near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, May 19. A 24-inch wide, 11-mile long section carrying oil from offshore platforms and an Exxon Mobil processing plant onshore leaked as much as 105,000 gallons of crude oil. An estimated 21,000 gallons made into the ocean, devastating nine miles of coastal waters and beaches.    

The oil spill that began off Refugio State Beach was inevitable, when you consider the capture of the regulatory apparatus by the oil industry in California. Until people challenge the power of Big Oil in California and the industry's control over the state and federal regulatory agencies, we will see more of the Refugio-type of oil spill disasters in the future.

During the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative process from 2004 to 2012, state officials and corporate "environmental" NGOs made sure that Big Oil and other corporate polluters weren't impacted by the creation of alleged "marine protected areas" along the California coast. The MLPA Initiative, a controversial "public-private partnership" between the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation (RLFF), was supposed to create a network of "marine protected areas" along the California coast.

In an article published widely in June 2010, I warned that the "marine protected areas" created under the MLPA Initiative don't protect the ocean from oil spills and pollution. (http://yubanet.com/...)

"These marine protected areas, as currently designed, don't protect against oil spills," said Sara Randall, then the program director of the Institute for Fishery Resources and Commercial Fishermen of America. "What's the point of developing marine protected areas if they don't protect the resources?"

MLPA Initiative advocates claimed that other state and federal laws and administrative actions "protect" the ocean from oil spills and new offshore oil drilling, so there was no need for specific bans or restrictions on oil industry activities in and near "marine protected areas."  

In violation of the provisions of the landmark Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) of 1999, the "marine protected areas" failed to protect the ocean from oil spills, oil drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering.  

Of course, MLPA Initiative advocates neglected to address why Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association in Sacramento, was allowed to CHAIR the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast and to sit on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast, as well as on a NOAA federal marine protected areas panel. (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/...)

They dismissed any questioning of why a Big Oil lobbyist was allowed to oversee "marine protection" in California as "wild conspiracy theories."

To make matters even worse, the WSPA President's husband, James Boyd, served on the California Energy Commission from 2002 to 2012. From 2007 to 2012, he served as the Commission's Vice Chair, the second most powerful position on the Commission! (http://www.energy.ca.gov/...)  

However, as we can see from the current oil spill disaster off the coast of Santa Barbara, the state and federal regulatory agencies and the MLPA Initiative's so-called "marine protected areas" weren't able to prevent a big oil spill like the one now taking place from occurring - and the fishermen, Tribal members and grassroots environmentalists who criticized oil industry lobbyist oversight of the MLPA Initiative process were absolutely right about their fears that the new "Yosemites of the Sea" wouldn't protect the ocean.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, May 26, 2015 (Image: Judi Bari stands defiant outside of the Oakland Federal Building, ca: 1996).

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Special Note: Due to the recent (voluntarily, fortunately) location of this site's main administrator, some of these stories are a little delayed. We apologize for any delay in timely reporting. Bear with us; we're all working class volunteers. ;-)

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• WARNING: The TPP is a hazard to your health and our Democracy! - Pattie Lockard, Nurse Talk Radio, National Nurses United, April 23, 2015
• Who’s Really Paying for Our Cheap Clothes? - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, April 20, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Government Finds $60 Billion Company Responsible For Deaths Of Four Workers, Fines It $99,000 - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, May 18, 2015
• Nine oil well deaths lead to warning about inhaling chemicals - Associated Press, May 18, 2015
• Global union action against asbestos - By Brian Kohler, Industriall Global Union, May 13, 2015
• 2 workers dead, 10 hurt in Mexico oil rig accident - Associated Press, May 5, 2015
• Workers end two-week long strike at BHP’s nickel mine in Colombia - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, May 4, 2015
• AFL-CIO Report: The High Toll of Job Injuries and Deaths - By the AFL-CIO, Portside, May 1, 2015
• A Global perspective on hazardous chemicals in the workplace - By Friis Bach, Environmental News Network, April 28, 2015
• Make Your Voice Heard, Speak Out for Safe Jobs, Protect Workers Now! - Blue Green Alliance, April 28, 2015
• 3 gold miners die in Ghana - By Andrew Topf, Mining.Com, April 26, 2015
• On 2-Year Anniversary of Rana Plaza Factory Collapse, Activists Announce Major Victory for Victims - By Miriam Shestack, In These Times, April 24, 2015 [related] Two Years After Rana Plaza Tragedy, Rights Abuses Still Rampant in Bangladesh's Garment Sector - By Kanya D'Almeida and Naimul Haq, Truth Out, April 24, 2015
• Women Around The World Rise Up To Remember Rana Plaza - By Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams, April 24, 2015
• World day for safety and health at work: the ETUC calls for occupational cancer prevention measures - European Trade Union Confederation, April 20, 2015

Gulf South Rising:

• Money spent cleaning up BP’s mess skipped those who needed it most - By Brentin Mock, Grist, April 21, 2015
• Deepwater Capitalism - By Quincy Saul, CounterPunch, April 20, 2015
• Gulf Fishermen Still Struggling Five Years After the BP Spill - By Mike Ludwig, Truthout, April 20, 2015
• Gulf South Rising: Demonstrations Across US on Fifth Anniversary of BP Oil Spill - Earth First! Newswire, April 20, 2015
• Five Years After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, We Are Closer Than Ever to Catastrophe - By András Tilcsik and Chris Clearfield, The Guardian, April 17, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Canadian oil field services company cuts 2,000 jobs across North America - Bloomberg, May 13, 2015
• Houston engineering company cuts 1,700 jobs amid first quarter loss - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, May 12, 2015
• More oilfield jobs lost despite modest rebound in crude prices - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, May 8, 2015
• Hercules Offshore has cut 40 percent of workforce amid low oil - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 29, 2015
• BP cuts hundreds of jobs as profits fall by nearly $1 billions - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 28, 2015
• Linn Energy to close Denver office, shed 55 jobs - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, April 24, 2015
• Weatherford increases job cuts to 10,000 - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 22, 2015
• Baker Hughes increases layoffs to 10,500 - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 21, 2015
• Nabors has laid off thousands in 2015, including more than 40 percent of its drilling unit employees - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 21, 2015
• Halliburton lays off 9,000 workers - By Michael Allan McCrae, Mining.Com, April 20, 2015
• U.S. Steel to increase job cuts in Harris County - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, April 20, 2015
• Hercules sells four rigs as Gulf drilling work disappears - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 20, 2015

Just Transition:

• Renewable Energy Employs 7.7 Million People Worldwide, Says New IRENA Report - By Staff, Sustainable Energy for All, May 19, 2015
• The Coal Industry Is a Job Killer - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, May 13, 2015
• General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) joins TUED - By Bishnu Rimal, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, May 7, 2015
• EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule Would Create Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs, Report Says - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, April 22, 2015
• Labor Troubadour Connects Working People to Climate Change Cause - By Staff, Blue Mountain Center, April 16, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Oakland residents deliver “coal” to developer to protest coal export plan - By Jess Dervin-Ackerman and Ethan Buckner, Rising Tide North America, May 15, 2015
• RNs, Sierra Club survey Richmond neighborhoods on health impact of coal trains - By California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, May 7, 2015
• Railroad union urges tougher safety standards to help prevent oil train derailments - By Associated Press, Daily Journal, April 26, 2015
• Court victory vindicates BLET position on two-person train crews - Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, April 21, 2015
• Survivor of rail yard explosion is emotionally, mentally shaken - By Nicole Goodrich, ABC KETV 7, April 17, 2015

Other News:

• Marathon workers say no to labor offer in Galveston - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, May 19, 2015
• SA gold miners face repeat of brutal 2014 platinum strike - By Frik Els, Mining.Com, May 13, 2015
• Farm Worker Advocates Target Ben & Jerry's - By Mitch Wertlieb and Melody Bodette, VPR, May 12, 2015
• LyondellBasell workers vote to end strike - By Andrea Rumbaugh, Houston Chronicle, May 7, 2015
• Public Process—Nearly Avoided—Just Killed that Proposed North Portland Propane Terminal - By Dirk VanderHart, Portland Mercury, May 7, 2015
• Hudbay's Manitoba miners down tools - By Andrew Topf, Mining.Com, May 3, 2015
• Here's the ad that is upsetting the union at Stillwater Mining - By Michael Allan McCrae, Mining.Com, April 27, 2015
• The Undemocratic Job-Killing Trade Scheme That Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership - By Leo Gerard, USW President, In These Times, April 27, 2015
• Secret Papers Reveal Lawson's 1981 Plot to Use Army Against Oil Workers - By Brendan Montague, DeSmog UK, April 20, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 20, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• The ExxonMobil Explosion That Nobody Is Talking About - By Sacha Feinman, Think Progress, April 13, 2015

May Day:

• May Day 2015 Benefit Concert for the Chicago IWW - Chicago IWW
• PROLERSKATING: A May Day Rollerskating Party! - Portland IWW
• Toronto IWW: May 16-17 2015: Organizing 101: Build the Committee Training - IWW.ORG

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• At least 19 dead after illegal mine collapses in Tanzania - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, April 17, 2015
• The Children's Place: Time To Pay Up! - By United Steel Workers, PR News Wire, April 17, 2015
• Coal Companies That Lobbied To Repeal West Virginia Mining Regulations Accused Of Federal Safety Violations - By Cole Stangler, International Business Times, April 15, 2015
• Federal researchers ID at least 9 VOC inhalation deaths at oil sites - By Mike Soraghan, EnergyWire, April 13, 2015
• Short Portraits of 11 Who Died on the Deepwater Horizon - Associated Press, April 18, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Coal Is Dying and It’s Never Coming Back; With or without help from President Obama - By Tim McDonnell, Climate Desk, April 16, 2015
• The Oil Industry’s ‘Man Camps’ Are Dying; Drillers spent big to house workers in the new boomtowns. No more - By David Wethe and Kelly Gilblom, Bloomberg Business, April 15, 2015
• Schlumberger cuts another 11,000 jobs in wake of oil crash - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, April 16, 2015

Just Transition:

• AWEA: US jobs increased 40% in 2014 - By David Weston, Wind Power Monthly, April 16, 2015
• Bonded PV Arrays Could Provide Safer Solar Power - By Bill Brooks, Renewable Energy World, April 19, 2015
• How Worker Co-ops are Moving Beyond Capitalism - By David Morgan, Occupy.Com, April 11, 2015
• Trade Unions condemn Petrocaribe Act; debate fate of Senator - Breaking Belize News, April 2, 2015
• Union funds to bail from flagship renewable energy investment - By Giles Parkinson, ReNew Economy, April 16, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Guest Opinion: Dirty fuel exports darken NW’s Earth Day - By Fred Felleman, Crosscut, March 31, 2015
• Jones Act tied to crude oil exports - Marine Log, March 25, 2015
• Railroad unions advancing two-person crew legislation to protect safety - Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, April 17, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Alleging Labor Abuses, U.S. and Mexican Workers Call for Boycott of Driscoll’s Berries - By Rachel Luban, In These Times, April 18, 2015
• Growers Move to Gut California’s Farm Labor Law - By David Bacon, Capital & Main, April 7, 2015
• Indonesia to send home enslaved fishermen; Government moves to return foreigners home after investigative report reveals forced labour in seafood industry - Al Jazeera, April 3, 2015
• Salad days? Semi-slavery on the 'sweating fields' of southern Spain - By Almudena Serpis, The Ecologist, April 16, 2015
• Time to Hold Large Buyers Accountable To Farmworkers Who Grow and Harvest Our Food - Fair World Project, April 2, 2015

Other News:

• Going Global in Richmond? Coalition Seeks Benefits From New UC Berkeley Campus - By Steve Early, BeyondChron, April 10, 2015
• Resurrection unionism: 5 ways labor can rise again - By David Goodner, Waging Non Violence, April 15, 2015
• Sharing is not always sharing - By Dirk Holemans, Green European Journal, April 16, 2015
• Turning Yosemite National Park Into a Cash Cow - By Marc Norton, CounterPunch, April 1, 2015
• Unlikely allies: Mexican miners and farmers unite over toxic spill - By David Bacon, Al Jazeera, April 15, 2015; [related] Miners and Farmers Challenge Mexico's Copper Giant - By David Bacon, Reality Check, April 15, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 1, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Deepwater Horizon still creating an environment of fear and intimidation five years on - By Charles Digges, Bellona.Org, March 27, 2015
• How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work; Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in neighboring states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries - Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, March 5, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Baja Labor Leaders Learned Tactics from Their Efforts in US - By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2015
• Banana Workers’ Strike Highlights Abuses by Corporations in Costa Rica - Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes, TierraAmerica, March 18, 2015
• Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and Why Unions are Needed     - By Duane E. Campbell, Talking Union, March 23, 2015
• El Salvador Farmers Successfully Defy Monsanto - By Dahr Jamail, TruthOut, March 23, 2015
• Father of Mexican worker killed in farm accident attends vigil in Albion; Daniel Larios Hernandez seeks better working and living conditions for migrant workers - By Tom Rivers, Orleans Hub, March 20, 2015; related [video]
• Mexican farmworkers strike over low wages, blocking harvest -  By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2015
• Mexico: Labor Rebellion in San Quintín; Farmworkers on Strike - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, March 30, 2015
• Occupy agriculture! Polish farmers sit in for land and freedom - By Justin Rose, The Ecologist, March 19, 2015
• Storytelling Spotlight: Farm Worker Oscar Otzoy - By Megan Campbell, Why Hunger, March 25, 2015
• Thousands of Mexican farmworkers march 15 miles as strike talks continue - Staff, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2015
• Why Mexico’s Farmworkers Who Harvest Our Food Are on Strike - By Sonali Kolhatkar, TruthDig, March 26, 2015
• Your Seafood may be Caught by Slaves - By Myriam Fallon, Greenpeace Blogs, March 26, 2015 [related] Major US Tuna Brands Connected to Slavery at Sea and Human Rights Abuses - By John Hocevar, Greenpeace Blogs, March 26, 2015

USW Refinery Strike:

• Conservationists Help Workers Strike for Refinery Safety - By Steve Curwood, Living On Earth, March 20, 2015
• East Bay Residents Push for Tougher Refinery Regulations - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, March 23, 2015
• Refinery Strikers Protest at Chicago BP HQ [video] - By LaborBeat, YouTube, March 24, 2015
• Letter to Marathon Management Regarding Texas City Memorial - By Walter E. ‘Sonny’ Sanders, United Steelworkers, March 24, 2015
• Tesoro Carson Strike 2015 [video] - By USW Local 675, YouTube, March 24, 2015
• Tesoro union employees returning to work - By Staff, Argus Media, March 25, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Fracking Town’s Desperate Laid-off Workers: ‘They Don’t Tell You It’s All a Lie’; The boom and bust in North Dakota has trapped people there, with little hope of work or escape - By Evelyn Nieves, Alternet, March 28, 2015
• GE expands job cuts at Lufkin oil unit to 575 from 330 - By Ankit Ajmera, Reuters, March 25, 2015
• Low oil prices force 2 Oklahoma companies to cut jobs - Associated Press, March 27, 2015
• North American Railroads Caught by Speed of Crude-Oil Collapse - By Thomas Black, Bloomberg, March 26, 2015
• North Dakota oil rig count drops below 100 - Associated Press, March 25, 2015
• Rigzone: Layoffs more likely than hiring - By Jennifer Hiller, FuelFix, March 25, 2015
• Shell cuts staff numbers in North Sea operations - Associated Press, March 26, 2015

Just Transition:

• Climate action and resource workers: Discussing 'just transition' with Karen Cooling - By Lindsey Bertrand, Rabble.Ca, March 31, 2015
• The fight for $15 is the fight for a livable planet - By Phil Aroneanu, 350.org, March 30, 2015
• San Diego Labor Goes Green: New Environmental Caucus Formed - By Jim Miller, San Diego Free Press, February 2, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Martinez Environmental Group Adopts Resolution In Opposition to Single Employee Train Crews and on Train Crew Fatigue - By Martinez Environmental Group, March 30, 2015
• ONTC and union reach five-year deal - By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles, The Nugget, March 23, 2015
• Washington Fire Chiefs Demand Transparency on Crude Oil Trains - By Sydney Brownstone, The Stranger, March 25, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Adjournment of Coroner’s Inquest into Lakeland Mills Explosion to consider “new evidence” only furthers need for a public inquiry - By Stephen Hunt and Brad West, United Steelworkers, March 25, 2015
• Latest numbers suggest unionized coal mines safer, more productive than nonunion operations - By Taylor Kuykendall and Hira Fawad, SNL, March 30, 2015
• Monsanto’s Roundup: Most Popular Weed Killer in U.S.; ‘Probably’ Causes Cancer, WHO Report Says - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, March 23, 2015

Other News:

• Activists Shape Oakland Coliseum Area Plan; a large coalition of activist groups pushed successfully for affordable housing goals, local hiring, and environmental mitigations - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, March 18, 2015
• Copper up, FCX down as workers halt production at Grasberg - By editor, Mining.Com, March 20, 2015
• Oil workers in West Texas and New Mexico were underpaid millions, Labor Department says - Associated Press, March 30, 2015
• Shell Oilsands Workers To Carry Electronic Trackers On The Job - By Cameron Langford, CBC.ca, March 19, 2015
• Union Organizer Wants to ID Snoops - By Cameron Langford, Courthouse News Service, March 26, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Dan Bacher - Indybay, March 27, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Environmental and human rights activists, holding plastic “torches” and “pitchforks,” formed human barricades at both entrances to the Nestlé Waters bottling plant in Sacramento at 5:00 a.m. on Friday, March 20, effectively shutting down the company's operations for the day.

Members of the “Crunch Nestlé Alliance" shouted out a number of chants, including ”We got to fight for our right to water,” “Nestlé, Stop It, Water Not For Profit," and “¿Agua Para Quien? Para Nuestra Gente.”

The protesters stayed until about 1 pm, but there were no arrests.

Representatives of the alliance said the company is draining up to 80 million gallons of water a year from Sacramento aquifers during a record drought. They claim Sacramento City Hall has made it possible through a "corporate welfare giveaway."

“This corporate welfare giveaway is an outrage and warrants a major investigation,” Coalition spokesperson Andy Conn said. “For more than five months we have requested data on Nestlé water use. City Hall has not complied with our request, or given any indication that it will. Sacramentans deserve to know how their money is being spent and what they’re getting for it. In this case, they’re getting ripped off.”

Lola Ellis of 99 Rise Sacramento, who spoke on the bullhorn at the protest, said, “Nestlé’s bottling of water in Sacramento is unsustainable in the current state of drought. We really don’t’ know how much water they are taking from the aquifer and that is a scary thing.”

“The water needs to be used for the local community. If there is not enough water for the local community, the Nestlé corporation should not be making a profit,” she emphasized.

The coalition protested what they call Nestlé's “virtually unlimited use of water” while Sacramentans (like other Californians) who use a mere 7 to 10 percent of total water used in the State of California, have had severe restrictions and limitations forced upon them.

The coalition is calling on Nestlé to pay rates commensurate with its enormous profit, or voluntarily close down.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 19, 2015; image by Jon Flanders

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conference: Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Florida’s Climate Change Gag Order Claims Its First Victim - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, March 18, 2015
• A Rational Agriculture Is Incompatible with Capitalism - By Fred Magdoff, Monthly Review, March 2015
• Who Controls Our Food? - By Nick Dearden, New Internationalist, March 4, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• After 6-Week Strike, Oil Workers Say They Have “Won Vast Improvements in Safety and Staffing” - By David Moberg, In These Times, March 16, 2015
• All across Australia, solidarity with USW oil workers - United Steelworkers, March 17, 2015
• Holding the line against Big Oil - By Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker, March 18, 2015
• Minor fire extinguished at Shell Martinez, Calif. refinery - Reuters, March 13, 2015
• New Fire At Troubled Exxon Refinery Quickly Extinguished -By Sacha Feinman, Think Progress, March 12, 2015
• Refinery deal struck, Bay Area gasoline prices set to fall - By George Avalos, Bay Area News Group, March 13, 2015
• Solidarity in the heartland: Chicago Fight for $15 joins striking BP oil workers on the picketline - By Bob Simpson, Daily Kos, March 13, 2015
• Striking Motiva workers approve contract - By Sarah Scully, Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2015
• Striking oil workers emerge victorious thanks in part to green group solidarity - By Kate Aronoff, Waging Nonviolence, March 13, 2015
• Striking refinery employees could come back to work by end of March - By Andrea Rumbaugh, FuelFix, March 18, 2015
• Striking workers days away from returning to plants - By Sarah Scully, Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2015
• U.S. Refinery Strikes Now Turn to Local Negotiations - By Lynn Doan and Barbara Powell, Bloomberg, March 12, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Bakken Oil: The Anarchy of the Market - By Richard Mellor, We Know What's Up, March 17, 2015 [editor's note: the IWW EUC does not endorse the article writer's definition of "anarchy", so please do not send us angry letters!]
• Carbo Ceramics cuts jobs, dividend as oil plunges - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, March 17, 2015
• ConocoPhillips to lay off 200 Canadian workers - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, March 18, 2015
• Evacuate the Economy (or By the Way, Your Home Is On Fire) - By Rebecca Solnit, Common Dreams, March 11, 2015
• Faces of Coal - By Nuck Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, March 17, 2015
• Global Wave of New Coal Plants is Going Bust, New Report Finds - By Mary Anne Hitt and Nicole Ghio, The Sierra Club, March 16, 2015
• Legendary Coal Miner Says We Must Stop the Insane Practice of Mountaintop Removal - By Jeff Biggers, EcoWatch, March 16, 2015
• Oil producer Nexen cuts workforce by 400 - By Ryan Holeywell, FuelFix, March 17, 2015
• Texas Oil/Gas Industry Barometer Falling; Job Losses Climbing - By Joe Fisher, NGI Shale Daily, March 13, 2015

Health and Safety:

• America is literally on fire: How out-of-control oil spills are destroying our population centers - By David Dayen, Salon, March 10, 2015
• Amid Evidence of Illnesses, Activists Call on Electronics Industry to Boost Workplace Safety - By Nicki Lisa Cole, Truthout, March 17, 2015
• Cement-factory roof collapses in Bangladesh, dozens feared trapped - By Julhas Alam, Associated Press, March 12, 2015
• Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails - By Marcus Stern, New York Times, March 12, 2015
• Oilfield safety a concern as companies cut costs during downturn - Bloomberg, March 12, 2015
• Friday the 13th Nightmare for Workers on Chevron’s Barrow Island - By Ashleigh Telford, Maritime Union of Australia, March 13, 2015
• Kelowna man dies fracking - By Bill Everitt, Kelowna News, March 12, 2015
• Linc Energy alleged to have exposed workers to dangerous gases at experimental plant near Chinchilla, west of Brisbane - By Mark Willacy and Mark Solomons, Australian Broadcasting Company News, March 17, 2015
• McDonald’s Workers Nationwide File OSHA Complaints Alleging Hazardous Work Conditions - By Jennifer Baker, Revolution News, March 17, 2015
• Rail workers initiate forums to discuss fight for safety - By Jack Parker and Jim Altenberg, The Militant, March 23, 2015
• 10 Reasons Why BP Got Off and Offshore Oil Drilling Just Got More Dangerous - By Antonia Juhasz, Rolling Stone, March 12, 2015
• A Terrible, Terrible Choice; Gulf of Mexico Oil Industry Veteran Speaks Out - By Cherri Foytlin, Bridge the Gulf, March 13, 2015
• Union alleges Kitimat smelter emissions turn residents into 'guinea pigs' - The Canadian Press, March 17, 2015
• Union warnings of lethal overcrowding ignored - By RMT Press Office, RMT.ORG, March 13, 2015

Other News:

• Building people power before the Paris climate summit - By Jeremy Brecher, Waging Nonviolence, March 5, 2015
• Seattle doesn’t want Shell’s stinkin’ Arctic drilling fleet - By Ana Sofia Knauf, Grist, March 5, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC